Despite listening to this album almost nonstop for the last few months, you and I haven’t yet delved into the full-scale conversation that their debut album Reservoirso clearly deserves. One of my favorite releases of 2009, this British/Swedish 6-piece has crafted a joyously shimmering album that arches and soars, and thumps compellingly through the speakers.

Reservoir was recorded late last year at Peter Katis’ Tarquin Studios (whose producer’s hand has also lent texture to some of my favorite albums lately, by bands like The National and Frightened Rabbit – “using all the colors“). Combining their youth and enthusiasm with Katis’ seasoned treatment gives us a gorgeous result.

Fanfarlo’s songs use a hugely expressive palette of instruments, heavy on the shiny trumpets, the dazzling saws and accordion, perforated at all the right places with pounding bass drums and quirky time-shifts in the beat. One of my favorite songs on the album is the flawlessly crafted “Comets” that waveringly coalesces at the beginning and end, like the deepening twilight and the stars appearing, wrung tightly with an almost tangible melancholy. “Harold T. Wilkins” is absolutely the best driving and yelling song all year, maybe all decade (“they’re trying to say – SAY!! they’re trying to say — SAY!!”). It feels good all the way down to your toes. The whole album dazzles the ears, and sounds just as delicious on a quiet Saturday morning as it does on a Friday night.

There is a large dose of Arcade Fire’s jubilance, but with a greater effervescence (like a sheer wash of fluorescent color dripping down) and it is uncanny how the swoops and lilts of Simon Balthazar’s voice evoke a young David Byrne. It doesn’t get much better than this.Ghosts – FanfarloHarold T Wilkins – Fanfarlo

And just in case their well-placed affinity for the song structures of Neutral Milk Hotel isn’t apparent enough, check their recent terrific cover of “In An Aeroplane Over the Sea.”

WIN TICKETS! I have a grip of tickets to give away to Fanfarlo’s Denver show, this Friday the 13th at Moe’s, to celebrate the launch of their national tour. It’s one of the most hotly-anticipated shows of my year. Please email me if you would like to win a pair, and I will let you know by Wednesday night if you can get your dancing shoes on, or bowling shoes, as it may be. There are lanes next door and if you’re brave enough, we’ll play (when we’re done singing along).

Irish songwriter Glen Hansard took the crowd outside Fingerprints by surprise last week, as they waited in line for his appearance inside with Marketa Irglova (of The Swell Season, and the movie Once):

Doesn’t that just give you the best kind of visceral reaction in your gut-parts? Sometimes I wish we could always live inside wonderful moments just like that, where people sing out what they mean, and mean the things they sing. Glen is an artist of the first-class.

That night their set included tracks from the new albumStrict Joy (out tomorrow on Anti- Records), the Once soundtrack, Leave (The Frames), Tim Buckley’s Buzzin’ Fly (Jeff Buckley was once Glen’s roadie, ‘member?), and “New Partner” by Will Oldham. Those who were there say it was truly magical.

In conjunction with the fine folks at Fingerprints, I have one autographed poster from that event to give away. It’s only signed by Glen (“Marketa wasn’t feeling great, so after the performance and almost two hours of meeting fans we set her free for the nap that was calling so loudly”).

Leave me a comment if you’d like to be entered for the poster — and go see Swell Season on tour this fall, eh?

Gravelly-voiced, unrelentingly rocking Memphis band Luceroengenders the most rabid of fans, and for good reason. Their songs pulse hot and true with the heart of rock and roll (yes, Huey, it is still beating).

Lucero comes through Denver on Tuesday night on their “Ramblin Roadshow & Memphis Revue” tour, in support of their sixth studio album 1372 Overton Park. The album is their major-label debut, and was produced by Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem). After a series of near misses, I think this time I will finally make it to be baptized into the cult. The show is rumored to be daunting in its intensity, but I hope mostly it won’t hurt.

TO WIN: The new album is named after the Memphis loft where the band used to live and make music, but also enviable: in the ’70s, 1372 Overton Park was a karate dojo where local resident Elvis Presley, among others, took lessons. Tell me a story in the comments about a place you used to live. I’ll pick two winners on Monday night before I go to bed.

Nichols is one of the finest writers we have of music to accompany bitter disillusionment and heartbreak, but Lucero’s best songs also burst forth with a sort of irrepressible hope — here, in the shiny Memphis horns.

If you haven’t spent any time around little people lately (kids, not midgets) perhaps you’ve forgotten how deeply calming it is to pick up a marker or a crayon and just spend some time coloring.

Your friends at the most excellent Yellow Bird Project have not forgotten this truth, and in the spirit of creating more awesomeness in this world, they’ve put together an Indie Rock Coloring Book that is suitable for kiddos or creative grown-ups.

The YBP are the folks that have all our favorite musicans design original artwork for t-shirts (I have and love The National shirt — and you should check out the new Ra Ra Riot one!) with all the funds going to charity. This new coloring book is no different, with all the proceeds going to good causes. I met these fellas at Outside Lands in SF this year, and they are making some positive change in the world despite being younguns. Idealism works sometimes.

Why is lead singer Patience (yes, that’s her real name) of Australian band The Grates so excited up there? It could be because she has 2 tickets to Sunday’s Monolith Festival to giveaway to YOU, as well as a copy of their new album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won.

Email me a story about a time when patience was important to you, or why we need Patience, or something rad about Australia (other than that my little brother is moving there, omg news of the family last night)! I will pick a winner at noon tomorrow, that’s 12pm Mountain Standard Time, Friday. Include your full name with your email entry, k?

The Grates play the Monolith kickoff party tomorrow night, and at the festival Sunday at 2pm. I saw them at SXSW (which is actually what that picture up top is from) and they were a blast.

Teeth Lost, Hearts Won is out Tuesday, Sept 15th. It was produced by Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National) and features guest appearances by Kori Gardner of Mates of State (vocals on “Milk Eyes“) and Tim Fite (vocals on “Not Today”).

To get you all riled up and excited like I am for the opening of the new film It Might Get Loud (opening in coastal NY/LA theaters Friday), I have a sweet poster signed by director Davis Guggenheim to give away.

I got little goosebumps of excitement when I saw this trailer, and I might have even uttered a profanity (sorry Mom).

From the clips I’ve seen, this movie draws me in because all three guitar players (Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page) truly, humbly love music and feel called to express part of themselves through the guitar. I love watching what flits across their faces as they watch each other play — the hint of a kid-like smile at seeing their idols at work.

The movie also seems to delve into how it can be almost like another language, this guitar playing — one that I can understand the meaning of when heard in the street, but I failed grammar class and could never speak a lick of it myself. As White says, “We’re all attempting to share something with another human being.” The Communication major in me thought that angle was pretty cool, and I can’t wait to hear more.

TO WIN THE POSTER: Leave me a comment saying which one of the three guitarists you are most interested to see and hear from and watch in this film, and why. I’ll pick a winner on Friday! (and sorry but you must be a U.S. resident to win)

In one of the press clips of the film that I got to screen, Jack White talks about how he came into making music through a Detroit co-worker (Brian Muldoon) at an upholstery apprenticeship he did in high school. The band they formed was fittingly called The Upholsterers, and their first 7″ was Makers of High Grade Suites (2000).

Even in these blisteringly raw tracks, you can hear the rumblings of what was to come from Jack White:

The documentary also shows the making of a U2 single (I saw clips of The Edge out at a beach home, noodling), has original music from Page, and yields a new song written on the spot by Jack White for the film (his Fly Farm Blues single is out today on Third Man Records).

My love for David Gray is vast and deep, the astounding way he can turn a lyric (these, for example are some of my favorite) or birth a simple piano melody to make my heart ache. His show in 2006 at the Colorado Convention Center still remains a top one for me.

Gray has just previewed a new track from his eighth full-length studio release, Draw The Line (due out Sept 22 on Mercer Street/Downtown Records).

Listen to ‘Fugitive’

The album has eleven new songs, two of which are duets with great female vocalists: Jolie Holland (on “Kathleen”) and Annie Lennox (“Full Steam Ahead”). I especially love Jolie Holland’s voice (of the Be Good Tanyas), and in an interview with Spinner, Gray said, “I’m a huge Jolie Holland fan. She’s absolutely fantastic and there’s not many people who manage to be so natural and unselfconscious. Her voice is just so warm. It reminds me of Cat Stevens in the best possible way.” Not a bad compliment, at all.

The Golden Triangle sounds like a mystic land of enigma from which no one returns, but it’s actually the area of Denver that the 15th annual Westword Music Showcase will overrun Saturday with 85+ ace bands, both local and national.

Even less expensive (as in F-R-E-E) are the five pairs of passes that Fuel/Friends has to give away to YOU and your selected companion. If you wanna come join us all day Saturday, please send me an email with “WESTWORD GIVEAWAY” as the subject line. We can maybe even have a beer or milkshake at the fest.

I feel fortunate to have a vibrant, active, effusively talented music scene to soundtrack life in Colorado, and the Westword (our local alt-weekly) is one of the two great festivals we have to look forward to this summer, with this tightly-curated day on Saturday.

There’s also a band I don’t know called “Lyin’ Bitch and The Restraining Orders.” And that’s just brilliant.

RELATED: The lineup for the Denver Post Underground Music Showcase (July 23-26) is also starting to be unveiled. Bookending the late summer to the Westword’s June soiree, the UMS is the largest indie music festival in Colorado, and last year we absolutely killed it. This year I helped with the lineup and am even more excited, if that’s possible. Check it out, and support both avenues for discovering (really good) local music!

Back in 2005, a film festival came to San Jose where I grew up and was living still. Five minutes down the road from the college where I was working, Amazing Gracescreened in a theater I’d visited dozens of times. This Jeff Buckley documentary is lauded by fans who have seen it as a gorgeous, heartfelt work about Jeff Buckley and his life.

I remember that as a particularly distracted Spring, and I completely missed the screening — and have spent the next four years compulsively checking the website every couple of months to see when I can watch it on DVD.

The day is finally here.

In honor of the 15th anniversary of the release of Jeff’s masterpiece album Grace, earlier this week the Grace Around the World CD/DVD of previously unreleased live performances hit the shelves. The deluxe edition also includes the Amazing Grace documentary, available for the first time.

The Grace Around The World performances were culled together and produced by Mary Guibert, Jeff’s mom. They are gorgeous renditions of Jeff’s songs taken mostly from his TV performances all over Europe and Asia from 1994-1995. It also comes with a CD of the audio from these performances. There are a couple of renditions of all the songs on Grace, and also a live version of “Vancouver,” which didn’t make it on the album but surfaced on Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk.

FUEL/FRIENDS CONTEST: One reader gets the limited-edition deluxe Grace Around The World prize pack which includes –

1) The Grace Around The World DVD featuring previously unreleased TV performances from U.S., UK, Germany, Japan and France
2) Grace Around The World CD featuring audio versions of all the tracks on the DVD, plus two additional previously unreleased tracks
3) A pretty sweet t-shirt.

If you’d like to win, leave me a comment, please, and let’s talk about something you love in Jeff Buckley’s music or live performance. Make me smile this week (or make me cry, or give me shivers, something good). Talk about a lyric, a melody, a song, a performance, a quote, a laugh. For me, it’s still absolutely the ebullient joy in this laugh that is my favorite moment ever of Jeff’s. What’s yours?

A few weeks ago, Radiohead‘s first three albums —Pablo Honey (1993), The Bends (1995) and OK Computer (1997)— were re-released, each packaged with all kinds of fancy accouterments like bonus discs of rarities, demos and live cuts and DVDs of videos and TV performances. Full tracklists here.

I’ve got a set of all three to give away to one of you guys! As I sat in the haze of work on Friday afternoon thinking about how to best run this contest, I was gchatting with my friend Josh. He is a rather intense Radiohead fan (and in fact just made me a lovely 2-disc collection of HIS favorite rarities and live cuts).

Superfan Josh’s idea for this contest was simple: “Ask ‘em what they think the dude says at the end of the ‘Just’ video.”

So there you have it; a fascinating idea. People who can read lips may not enter, and folks that live outside the U.S. can’t win (sorry! sorry!). You have one week, til next Saturday the 18th. GO.

Later this month (April 21), Capitol/EMI will also reissue 12 Radiohead EPs on 180-gram vinyl as part of the “From The Capitol Vaults” vinyl series. I do not get to give those away, but it’s pretty cool.

Search:

About Me

Name: Heather BrowneLocation: Colorado, originally by way of CaliforniaGiving context to the torrent since 2005.

"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook

"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."—Hunter S. Thompson

Let's be Friends

About The Songs

Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.

Archives

I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS is brought to you by Fuel/Friends LLC. Ownership of all audio and visual material displayed here remains with their creators and/or owners and is cited accordingly.. Illustrations by Luke Flowers. Design & Layout by Dayjob.